Christy O'Connor: The boys are back in town — after 64 years
ON THE ROAD: Dublin make first trip in 64 years to Aughrim. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
On the morning that Dublin played Kerry in the 2001 All-Ireland quarter-final replay, the Dubs had stayed in a hotel just outside Thurles when one of the players spotted the actor Colm Meaney in the car-park.
At the time, Meaney was well known for playing the character Miles Edward O’Brien in the Star Trek franchise. As Meaney was making his way back to his car, the curtains in a second-floor room were pulled back with a flourish, the window flew open and a naked Dublin player appeared like a vision from Deep Space Nine. “Hey,” he roared out the window to Meaney, “beam me up, Scotty.”
When the players arrived in Thurles a few hours later, an All-Ireland camogie match between Tipperary and Wexford had just finished. Since the two dressing rooms at either side of the tunnel in Semple Stadium shared the one shower and toilet area, the doors were bolted shut. But one of the Dubs who wanted to go to the toilet kicked the door and burst it wide open. A plethora of naked and half-naked women were suddenly on view in the shower area and the roof nearly lifted off with their screams.
There was a time when as soon as Dubs went on the road for a rare trip beyond the capital, it represented an opportunity for a carnival – because there always seemed to be something waiting to happen.
On their way to play Offaly in Tullamore in the 1992 championship, a car ploughed into the side of the Dublin bus on Gardiner Street. The players were only told afterwards that exaggerated stories of mass injury and even death spread through the streets of Tullamore like wildfire. When the bus finally arrived outside O’Connor Park, the players were welcomed like messiahs.
It got even more comical a year later when Dublin played Wexford in Wexford Park. One Dublin supporter from the Thomas Davis club climbed on to the roof of the Dublin dressing room and fell through it while Pat O’Neill was giving his half-time team talk.
“It was like something out of a Monty Python film,” Keith Barr once recalled. “This guy suddenly comes through the roof and you’re thinking, ‘What f****** planet did he land from?’ He hits the deck, brushes himself off, says sorry, then shouts ‘Up the Dubs’ and walks out. What can you say or do but laugh?”
Chaos was never too far away. When Dublin played Wexford in Dr Cullen Park, in 2002, it was the Saturday evening after Ireland had played Cameroon in their opening World Cup group game that morning. During the match, five streakers invaded the pitch at different times.
Dublin only scraped past Wexford by two points. They would have been beaten if Paddy Christie hadn’t superbly blocked a goal-bound shot from Matty Forde in injury-time.
Dublin went on to narrowly lose an All-Ireland semi-final to Armagh but that Wexford performance expanded the myth that the best time to catch the Dubs was outside of Croke Park. It wasn’t. It isn’t. In the last 50 years, the Dubs have lost just two championship games outside of Croke Park; the 1981 Leinster semi-final to Laois and the 2001 All-Ireland quarter-final replay to Kerry.
Away trips were rare back then but they’re more regular now. Yesterday’s game against Wicklow was Dublin’s ninth game outside Croke Park in the last five years. As well as it being Dublin’s first championship game against Wicklow in Aughrim, it was also Dublin’s first visit to Aughrim in over 64 years when they met in the league.
After a spin down the road yesterday, Dublin now have another road-trip to look forward to against Meath in the semi-final. The boys are back in (another) town again.
On the afternoon that Kerry hammered Clare in the 2018 Munster semi-final, it was more than just a unique occasion for the championship debuts of David Clifford and Seán O’Shea; Kerry’s final tally of 0-32 was the highest number of points (white flags) ever recorded in championship football.
Kerry did what they liked during a 22-point annihilation but the score was more impressive again considering how rare it had been for teams to clock up 25 points (white flags) or more in the championship.
Dublin hit Westmeath for 4-26 in the 2009 Leinster championship. Cork put up 1-27 against Donegal later that summer. Mayo racked up 6-25 against Sligo in the 2015 Connacht final. Dublin scored 1-25 against Laois in 2018, while Louth registered 2-26 against London in that year’s qualifiers. Dublin clocked 2-26 against Roscommon in 2019 while Kerry ramped up the pace again in the 2022 Munster final when bagging 1-28 against Limerick.
Under the new rules though, some football results this year will resemble hurling scorelines far more regularly. Those numbers will be inflated by 2-point scores but, while Armagh’s final tally of 1-34 on Saturday against Antrim was buttressed by four orange flags, Kieran McGeeney’s side still hit 26 white flags.
In the six provincial championship matches across the weekend, there were 35 2-pointers scored. Armagh were the only side to hit more than 0-25 (white and orange flags combined), but seven sides registered more than 0-20 – Antrim, Cavan, Dublin, Meath, Offaly, Tyrone and Westmeath.
In the Armagh-Antrim, Meath-Offaly and Cavan-Tyrone games, all sides hit more than 0-20, which would never have happened in previous years. If the 2-point scoring system wasn’t in place, the final score under the old system in those matches would have been 1-30 to 2-18, 1-18 to 0-17, and 1-24 to 0-15. Tyrone didn’t even need a 2-pointer to finish with 24 points (white flags).
So aside from 2-pointers, a more open game is already leading to more scores. And, the longer the season goes on, the more some football matches will resemble hurling scorelines.
At half-time in Omagh yesterday, as the showers abated and the sun came out, a full rainbow provided a neat backdrop to a sky that still clearly hadn’t made peace with the weather Gods.
At that stage, Cavan were trailing by ten points but they had the strong breeze to come in the second half. Given their history in this fixture, the elements were something for Cavan to cling on to. It made no difference. Twelve minutes into the second half, Tyrone had pushed the margin out to 14 points. Cavan did halve that margin by the final whistle but the result was never in doubt.
Was anybody surprised? No. It’s 42 years now since Cavan last beat Tyrone in a championship match, the 1983 Ulster quarter-final. Even then, it took an incredible free-taking display from Martin Lynch to edge a tight one point win, 0-11 to 0-10. Two of Lynch’s points were from the sideline, one of which was close to the corner-flag.
Yet one victory over four decades ago did nothing to change a pattern that has now become permanent. In their 13 championship meetings since 1983, Cavan have come up short each time.
Cavan’s championship record against Tyrone across the last 70 years now amounts to just two wins. Cavan won all of their first 15 championship meetings, but when Tyrone finally won their first Ulster title in 1956, it was already clear that they had no truck with Cavan’s historical superiority; they hammered Cavan in that final by ten points.
Cavan have never had the same hangups with every other side in Ulster, having beaten them all in the last 12 years, some on multiple occasions. Tyrone though, are the dragon Cavan just cannot slay.
